Land degradation is a prominent ecological problem in dryland areas and a focus of many countries and in-temational organizations. Continual worsening of land degradation in dryland areas caused not only declineof soil fertility and reduction of food production directly impacting on farmers' livelihood, but also deterio-ration of ecosystems threatening the foundation for human survival. Therefore, it is an obligatory responsi-bility of countries, international organizations and scientists to improve the ecological situation in drylandareas, to prevent land degradation and to achieve sustainable land management as soon as possible.China has a wide distribution of dryland and land degradation is severe. Land degradation has become thekey factor restraining sustainable economic and social development in dryland areas. In order to improvethe ecological conditions in dryland areas, Chinese government and its people have taken many measuresfor ecological improvement and protection and have made tremendous achievements in land degradationprevention and control, obtaining a series of applicable experiences and techniques which have greatly con-tributed to ecological improvement and land degradation control in dryland areas.While committed to ecological improvement and environment protection, Chinese government attachesgreat importance to strengthening international cooperation and exchange. In 2002, Chinese governmentestablished a strategic partnership with the GEF in land degradation control, i.e. China-GEF partnership onland degradation in dryland ecosystems. This was the first partnership of GEF established with a govern-ment in ecological fields. The partnership was aimed to create a multiagency, cross-sector and inter-regionalintegrated natural resource management system, a new approach to addressing land degradation problemfrom the grassroot. Therefore to stop land degradation, restore dryland ecosystems, reduce poverty, andpromote sustainable development in western China and protection of global environment.